


The Tale of the Children

by Serriya (Keolah)



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Children, Dreams, Gen, Original Universe, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1994-01-01
Updated: 1994-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 05:43:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/548232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bard Delven tells a story about telepathic elven children long ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of the Children

It was winter of 4323 in the elven calendar. Keolah Kedaire and her friends sat around a large hearth-fire after dinner. Then Thistle said, "The evening is quiet and lonely. Hear how soft the wind has become. The hearth-fire glows bright and crackles happily. This is a perfect night for tale-telling. Why don't you tell us a tale, Delven?"

"What tale should I tell? I know so many."

"Tell us one about children, long ago in Zarhanna."

"Ah, children. Though fleeting years have passed and children born and aged long gone, the children have ever made the difference. The children tipped the balance then and now. This is a story of children long ago, children who once made the difference.

My tale begins in the land of Kedresida, in the seaside city of Dorgada. A boy named Mat Adrian ran down the street to the sea-docks. The wafts of sea-water and fresh fish drifted up from the ocean below. Adults crowded the street, but Mat knew where he was going and why. He was meeting his sister M'shell at the sea-docks today.

The crowd of adults was mostly moving back into the city, slowing his progress down to the docks. Mat knew exactly what to do when this happened. He turned to the side of the street and jumped up onto a ladder, soon finding himself atop the general store. Staggering slightly because of the roof's slope, Mat continued to the sea. He walked to the south edge of the roof and judged the distance to the next building too far to jump. Mat was undaunted, though. The boy merely grabbed a nearby ladder and used it as a bridge.

Once there, he paused to look around a moment. No, it was not another rooftop. This was a landing with a staircase leading upward to the roof. He was at the local seafood restaurant. He had to admit that it was an interesting place. Eating seafood while facing the ocean from the roof tables was rather fascinating. Mat smiled at the very thought as he began climbing the staircase. When he arrived on the roof, he noticed that there weren't many people eating here today. He pranced to the south end of the rooftop and leaned on the rail as he gazed at the sea. The blue waves lapped gently upon the sand of pearls. Mat only smiled gently as he slid down to the next roof and made his way to the sea-docks. The docks appeared deserted, but Mat knew better. The boy jumped down from the small dune into the sand and peered under the dock. A hissing ball of fur and claws flung itself into his face. Then the cat, realizing who it was that had intruded, called off its attack. This was M'shell's pet feline Lynn, who followed the girl around wherever she went. The tawny cat mewed at Mat, then led him under the dock to M'shell's hiding spot. Through some tunnels under the docks the cat led Mat to their own little seaside house.

The girl with the golden hair was sitting reclined in an overstuffed blue chair. This was the main room of the children's house, lit and warmed by a central hearth-fire. The floor, ceiling, and walls were red brick and there were hallways leading off to the right and forward. On the left, which was south, there was a window. A tiny chimney in the far corner helped the open window ventilate the house. M'shell was in the chair that was facing the fire with her back to the entrance. There was another chair across the fire between the chimney and the west-hallway, this one deep green. Lynn the cat curled up in M'shell's lap. Mat went over and sat in the green chair.

M'shell began caressing Lynn and spoke, more to the cat than to Mat. "The Children must meet again soon. It has been too long. We must find them and get them together again. I'm worried about the things that have been happening recently. The children must be rejoined: Halla Casseli, Lindsay Shaz, Karlis Arrick, Mandan Kedaire, Arid Chel, and Lexen Khan, not to mention us, M'shell and Mat Adrian."

M'shell put the feline on the floor and looked directly at Mat. "I have gathered from books that all people used to be able to speak to each other without even being remotely near each other. The term for this was telepathy. Now it seems as though all of the adults have slowly lost this ability, and only we children still possess it. Not all of the children have it still, though. Only the two of us and those which I named retain it. Nevertheless, it seems as though ours is not as strong as it once was. I theorize that if all the children are joined once again, we may be able to slow, if not halt entirely, this dwindling of telepathy." In her mind, she said, "I'll keep in touch," to Mat. With that, she and Lynn strode out of the house.

Mat pondered her otherwise shocking words for a few fleeting moments before following her. It was long since he had seen the children she had mentioned, but they would be able to recognize them through thought alone.

M'shell and Mat met again outside. Lynn merely chased some troublesome rodents nearby. M'shell was standing in the incoming tide, looking out over the sea, away from her home in Dorgada. "I wonder what lies beyond that great ocean," she thought in Mat's general direction. "Perhaps there are children like us on the other side of the sea, for there the Blue Star must shine like the sun."

"If there truly be such a land," Mat thought back to her, "then it would be called Kalor, for it would be lit by silver-blue. Perhaps there truly are people like us there, in Kalorrey, in Shazfinn, the Land of the Star. Then maybe one day they will speak to us, and we will hear them."

"And then those here in Dorgada, in Kedresida, those children in all Zarhanna, will rejoice." M'shell thought to Mat, "and maybe one day we will meet them, Mat, those joyous children: the Shaztahni, the People of the Star. Oh yes, the Children of the Star, of Shazmar, the children of joy, silver-blue joy unsurpassed."

"The Star should not be simply named Blue Star, for it is much more than that," thought Mat. "It should be called Kashaz, for it is a Star of Joy. It should be called Kalorshaz, for it is the Star of the Silver-Lands. It will be called Shazzendek, for it is a Star Without Fear. Fearless Star Shazmar, never to fall. Surrender you not, Star Unsurpassed. Shazzendellor is the name I now name you. Shazzendellor, the Star Unsurpassed."

From the dock above them, the cat called Lynn only looked on as Mat joined his beloved sister in the incoming tide that night. It was Halla-du-Keeri here in Zarhanna, and the seas to the south were basking in silver-blue. Shazmar was rising. Mat and M'shell spoke no words aloud, but their thoughts sang into the night. Their songs rose high so that even the deafened adults of Dorgada heard their thoughts. They all slept that night in joy, free from the troubles and stresses of everyday life. They all dreamed joyous and happy dreams of the land called Kalor, the Land of the Star.

* * *

The next morning in eastern Taverak, the child named Halla Casseli sat on the porch of her family's ranch-house, staring out at the sun rising from the great trees into the vast sky. Dazzled by her stunning beauty, Halla merely sat there, completely awestruck. Yallia flew on wings of flame into the endless blue sky. In her stunning brilliance she cast golden light into the shadowed cherry forests below. Those trees grew so tall because they were Yallia's children, and they were trying to reach their beloved mother in the sky. That was why the people of Zarhanna had named them the yallissi, the Children of the Sun.

The door to the ranch-house creaked opened, and Halla's mother stepped out onto the porch. The woman looked to be in her mid-thirties, and she wore a pale blue cotton dress. Her thin brown hair was rather unkempt and pinned back in a loose bun. As she wiped a breakfast plate dry with a pink towel, she addressed Halla like a mere child, saying, "Why aren't you doing your chores, child?"

Halla stood up and faced her mother. Her own golden hair flowed like the wings of Yallia around her body, and her sky-blue eyes looked into her mother's hazel ones. She stood there for a moment, then, without saying a word, turned and sprinted lithely down the trodden paths to the old barn across the field.

The Zartahn child set about to doing her ever tedious chores near the barn, for those there were more interesting than those around the house. At least here she had someone to talk to who could listen. The farm animals were always more fun to talk to than the grownups, because at least the animals listened to her.

Combing the gray pony Kazhu, she spoke softly in her mind to that gentle beast. "There, Kazhu, now isn't that better? I should have brought some carrots for you. I know how much you love them. Maybe tomorrow I will. I had to rush out this morning because my mother told me to go and do my chores. I never tire of talking to you, though. Dear old Kazhu, have you found any good places to stroll here lately?"

Not surprisingly, the pony Kazhu could respond, in the same way. "Yes, little Halla, I did find a nice place to go for a ride, out on the edges of the forest. I was there last evening, soon before the sun returned to her burrow. The birds that sing there have seen many things, and their songs touch the heart more than any words could."

Halla smiled at the wise old pony, and spoke, "We shall have to go there later, after I finish my chores."

With that, Halla moved from the stables to the big old barn. She spoke kindly to Ramin the dog and Relist the cat. They remembered the days back in Dorgada before the family moved here to Taverak. They remembered the children, and especially M'shell and her brother Mat. If any could bring the children together again, it was Mat and M'shell. They brought them together in Dorgada by contacting their minds. They may be able to do so again now. Maybe they already had.

"What do you suppose Mat and M'shell are doing now?" Halla asked into thin air. She didn't expect an answer from Ramin or Relist, though their telepathy was stronger than Halla's.

"Searching for the children," responded Ramin. "They met last night at the old cottage by the sea. Their joy-song afterward was so pure that it drifted all across Zarhanna."

"Is that what caused all those strange dreams I had?" wondered Halla.

"Probably," replied the cat Relist. "What were they about? Tell me some of them."

"I usually can't remember my dreams, but these were so vivid that I can't forget them." Halla said, "I was flying over a tropical land, and a flock of strange birds flew beneath me. I vaguely knew that they were called geese. I was then over the ocean, or a large lake. The water was so pure, and many-colored. It shone of pink, violet, deep azure, and some verdant green. I think it was dusk that this was happening in the dream. Then ahead, I saw an island through the hanging, leafy foliage. There were misty granite cliffs with hazy vines and lichen hanging tranquilly from them. Whispering waterfalls spilling over the cliffs into the water below, causing a great cloud of mist to rise into the air in vaporous hues. Then I was falling, falling quickly into the sea. I tried to keep from falling, but the thrill was so intense that I let myself fall. Then I was underwater, and I was amazed to realize that I could breathe down there. A shaft of sunlight pierced the gently churning waters, reaching down into the hazy depths. I saw strange, alien fish swimming by. There were some whose scales flashed brightly pink, azure, and silver in the sunlight. Then a school of mermaids passed. Mermaids! Can you just imagine? They lithely slid through the violet water, seeming no more exotic than the fish. One of the mermen looked familiar, but I cannot place the name. No, it was Mat! And M'shell was with him! Now I remember! The other children were all there with us. I must have been a mermaid to them as well." Halla sighed.

Relist asked, "What happened next?"

"I awoke." Halla shook her head. "It was such a beautiful dream. I wish it could have been real."

"If it was so vivid, perhaps it was real," suggested Ramin.

Halla considered this for a time while she did her chores.

Mandan Kedaire sat in the soft golden sunlight and napped, nonchalantly snoring. Lightly sleeping, he began to dream. Fleeting images streemed through his mind eventually slowing to become clusters of scenes. The distinct impression of sand and water played in the background of the dream, dominated by a calling melody beckoning him forward through the land of the forest. As his spirit ran through the giant cherry trees he was overwhelmed by a sense of renewed and all consuming joy and happiness. His thoughts suddenly turned to the memory of the twins, M'shell and Mat. This memory, though not disturbing, was so shocking that he sat up bolt strait, compleatly awake and aware with the faint trace of a voice calling back to Dorgada.

Six months ago he had been standing on a cliff in the Silver Mountains watching his long time friend Tangon and her father Perrin flying away on the grey wings of rocs across the sundering seas. Now he stood in the Pass of Sharmen traveling home to Janitten. He had not considered visiting the twins, but the odd dream convinced him that maybe he should plan on prolonging his journey just a little longer than he had planned. Perhaps, he thought to himself, I should try to avoid the Tagroth Marsh by going through the Rizzkeer Pass. Mandan was good-looking with his silver eyes and his night black hair, with an air of misplaced authority much like his descendent that we all know and respect, Keolah.

Delven stopped talking for a moment to suffer Keolah's withering glare. "Really Keolah, you needn't glare at me so. I was only complimenting on your unique leading ability."

Continuing to scowl at the defenseless story-teller, she just said quietly with a slight warning smile, "Sure Delven, just stick to the story before you say something that could cause lasting harm."

"Uh, right, Keolah," said Delven, swallowing hard. "Well, anyway, Mandan Kedaire decided to go pay a visit to M'shell, who he thought very fondly of, and, oh, yeah, I almost forgot, he went to see Mat, too, but he was looking forward to seeing Mat's sister more, for obvious reasons. I'm afraid we must leave Mandan for now. The other children need to be told about as well."

Arid Chel, a child of diplomats, wandered off from his parents who were negotiating in the city of Kaminus in southern Noraley. Politics bored him. What he needed was a little adventure . . .

Arid hopped aboard a cart heading for a village at the mouth of Vevelanamp, none aware of his presence. Arriving in the village near dusk, Arid scrambled off the cart and toward the great river. There, he saw a wondrous, certainly magical island in the evening mist. Borrowing a raft, the boy paddled over to that island, which, though he didn't know it, was called Evra Jeven.

The isle, which he believed to be greatly magical, seemed to set its spell upon Arid, and he drifted off into sleep. Unaware of events far from him, the boy dreamed in the silent flowing of the river. He heard the music of the river, as if it were calling to him. The river flowed silver-blue, rippling as if Clizhennozuri herself danced within those bright waters. Then Arid saw the island, and understood. From that moment forward, Arid Chel was linked heart and soul to the island called Evra Jeven.

Arid felt the roots of the towering redwoods and their anxious branches reaching ever skyward. The boy understood! He knew in that instant what it was like to feel the joy of sunlight upon leaves, experienced anew the play of light upon water. It was as though he was reborn in that instant, and as he realized that he was not asleep, he heard the voices of all the plants and creatures of Evra Jeven. He heard the eternal sighing of the undying redwood, the fleeting echo of the leaping deer, the wind rustling the leaves of the little trees. Arid Chel was one with Evra Jeven, he was part of Evra Jeven. Let them wonder what had become of him. He would not leave this joy for anyone.

Then Arid felt beyond the island, realizing then that his bond existed not only with Evra Jeven, but with the river Vevelanamp, the fields of Taverak, the cherries of Thalarey, the rocs of Garateck, the woodlands of Kedresida, the flowers of the Thalarian meadows, all of Zarhanna, even every elf, troll, gnome, nymph, dragon, roc, animal, plant. Now aware, Arid saw that he could speak to any of the living things of Zarhanna, and be understood. Wasn't this what M'shell and Mat were telling the last time he visited Dorgada? That his potential for the powers of telepathy were the greatest of any she had ever seen or heard of? His curiosity thoroughly piqued by his newfound powers, Arid went to the raft and rowed down Vevelanamp to the sea, following the shoreline eastward. Even as he wished to remain on Evra Jeven, he knew that he could speak to those creatures that grew thereon no matter where he was. Thus Arid Chel traveled toward Dorgada.

In the City of Isserb, Lindsay Shaz tediously cleaned her parents' house. It was bad enough that they had partied all last night, but did they have to leave a mess and make her clean it up? Desparate, Lindsay finally called over her cousin Karlis Arrick to help her with it. Karlis was glad for any excuse to come over.

"Every week the same thing. Party all night and leave the mess to Lindsay. Aargh!" moaned Lindsay.

"Just once, can't they party somewhere else?"

"Be grateful now they've decided to take the month off to a vacation on the Endless Plains," replied Karlis.

"What is it they were going to see?" wondered her cousin.

"Oh, some ruins on the Hills of Medhra. Legend has it that old druids once gathered there, as it was midway between gnomish and elven land."

"Thank the Lights they are not there any more! I would hate to see them get hurt because of--of--him. Well, you know who I mean."

"Too well," murmured Karlis, "all too well. Our great-grandparents were mages, I've heard. Some say we have inherited some of their power."

"Then I hope to the Lights that none who are unfaithful to the magic of world discover that!" Lindsay sighed.

"Hey, Lindsay?" ventured Karlis. "Did you have any dreams last night? I mean, unusual dreams?"

Lindsay looked up. "Actually, I did. Rather strange dreams, in fact. That is, most bizarre indeed."

"What were they about?" asked Karlis. "Two children singing," began Lindsay.

"On a beach," added her cousin. "At sunset." "Near a dock."

"M'shell and Mat!" cried Lindsay. "They were sending a message to us, weren't they?"

"Same dream, same night, both of us? Definitely." Karlis sighed. "Just what do you suppose they want us to do?"

"Something must be terribly wrong with the world to force M'shell and Mat to send a dream-message. Perhaps we should go to Dorgada to find out more."

"It's a long way to Dorgada," Karlis shook her head.

Lindsay was unpersuaded. "The other children have much longer to go, if they wish to gather us again. I heard Arid was going to be in Noraley, of all places! We only have a relatively short trip down the Sedon!"

"One problem: no boat."

"That's no problem," Lindsay snorted. "If we have to, we can borrow one."

"You mean steal?" Karlis said wryly.

* * *

Writing notes:

The children must meet again at the Children's Cottage in Dorgada. Tell the stories of how they all got there. Then continue with Mat central for a while, though M'shell is more important. She is essentialy the leader of the children.

The children will attempt to stop Denahbi, but they will have to lose the attempt, though they all survive and have children, passing on, though weakened, the telepathy. Mandan marries M'shell, and in them the Kedaire line, doubled telepathy and all, continues down to Keolah. Lindsay marries Sozhatar Tatal, and the Tatal line continues with the telepathy. Later, Jerevis Khan marries Sidrala Tatal, and the Tatalkhan line is formed. Karlis marries Rokaro Dor, and the Dor line continues. Halla marries Drothansi Mar, so the Mar line continues. Later, Gilvanar Dor marries Trokan Mar, thus the Dormar line is formed. The Takhandomar line, which has quadruple the telepathy due to the joining of four children, is rather famous, especially after a joining with the Chelseers. However, there are not very many of them, as they do not believe they need to have children, except for a few who merely want to anyway.

Arid Chel has two children, a daughter named Morista Tevriel Chel, and a son named Kovith Chel. Morista marries the crown prince of Kedresida, Nevedion Seer, and from her the Seer line continues with its telepathy. With the birth of the first Chelseers, the telepathy was squared, not just doubled, because Arid retained his in full, and his daughter had carried nearly complete, and his son half. The descendants of the Chelseers, especially the heirs and, to a lesser extent, the children of the heirs who were not heirs themselves, carried on this nearly fully retained power over the generations. Keolah, being of both Kedaire and Chelseer descent, had a great deal of potential in the area of power and telepathy.

Another branch of Hawthorne's family tree is the Cheldons, an obscure family living in the fields west of Kaminus. This branch began when Kovith's great-granddaughter Zevadia married Bontalor Don, a Noralian farmer. Her parents were Ashimwa of Mithim and Kelovith, son of Drivith, son of Kovith. She had a younger brother named Tevrith, and an uncle named Prinnith. Her children were Dizamba, Korzival, Trian, and Talsor. The Chel line was continued by Talamand.


End file.
